stupid
Americanadjective
-
stupider,
comparative
-
stupidest
superlative
-
lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; slow-witted.
-
characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish; senseless.
Sorry for asking a stupid question, but why is the answer four instead of five?
-
tediously boring, especially due to lack of meaning or sense; inane; pointless.
He wished he'd never come to such a stupid party.
-
annoying or irritating; troublesome.
Turn off that stupid radio.
-
in a state of stupor; stupefied.
After a twelve-hour work day, she was stupid from fatigue.
noun
adjective
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lacking in common sense, perception, or normal intelligence
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(usually postpositive) stunned, dazed, or stupefied
stupid from lack of sleep
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having dull mental responses; slow-witted
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trivial, silly, or frivolous
noun
Usage
What are other ways to say stupid? The adjective stupid describes things characterized or proceeding from mental dullness. Do you know when to use stupid, fatuous, silly, inane, foolish, and asinine? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Commonly Confused
Stupid, ignorant, and unintelligent are all used to refer to people or things that seem to show a lack of mental resources. Stupid is the most general and most insulting term, and can describe someone lacking in intelligence, wisdom, prudence, or mental quickness. Unintelligent refers to people or things that are lacking in capacity for learning, reasoning, or understanding. Ignorant, by contrast, generally means lacking in knowledge (not necessarily lacking in intelligence).
Synonym Usage
See dull.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of stupid
First recorded in 1535–45; from Latin stupidus, equivalent to stup(ēre) “to be numb, to be stunned” + -idus -id 4 ( def. )
Explanation
A stupid person doesn’t have much intelligence or imagination, and they go through life making decisions that seem to lack all common sense. If you’ve got a brain but you don’t use it, you might be a bit stupid. The word comes from a Latin adjective that means “amazed or stunned,” and stupid people are stunned by everything because their minds are numb. You can make a stupid mistake when you’re not thinking, and you can call someone stupid if you’re feeling cruel, like “Hey, Stupid.” Zombies are stupid because their brains are dead. If that makes sense to you, then you’re not stupid, and you’re also not a zombie. Well done!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But on Monday, a federal district court judge in Massachusetts postponed the effective date on the grounds that—and I am paraphrasing here—the rule is mind-bendingly stupid and would create a needless, self-inflicted economic catastrophe.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Paul Robinson: Initially it looks really stupid from Phil Foden.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
It falls to Wilson’s exceedingly average Joe to save a world too stupid to save itself.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026
For the first half-hour or so I was reflexively covering the brake pedal at intersections and merging lanes, ready to engage if the super-intelligence at the wheel did something stupid.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Which was stupid if you’re not a hero, and I wish I’d never done it and I especially wish that I’d never ever wished that you were my father instead of Jack.
From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr
“I was a bit stupider back then,” he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Other news reports more definitively declared that, yes, ChatGPT is becoming stupider.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 2, 2023
Otherwise, the whole room gets stupider and stupider.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 20, 2023
I will admit that since publishing the book, I have been more open to the possibility that social media have been making us stupider.
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2021
“And if you think that while your ymbryne is free they’ll ever stop hunting you, you’re stupider than you look.”
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
In New York magazine, John Simon said there was “a very strong probability” that it was “the stupidest major movie ever made.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Some pundits might be calling it “the most important chart in the world,” Perkins said, but in reality, it is closer to “the stupidest chart in the world.”
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2025
That’s “completely bogus,” writes TS Lombard Managing Director Dario Perkins, who calls it “the stupidest chart in the world.”
From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2025
"It's one of the stupidest things I've done."
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2025
“That was one of the stupidest things you’ve ever done,” she snorted, when I announced I had quit.
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
